NATO sets deadline for Kosovo

Posted: Saturday, January 30, 1999

BARRY SCHWEIDAP Diplomatic Writer

LONDON - With NATO threatening military force, the United States and five European nations demanded Friday that Yugoslavia and ethnic Albanians end the nearly yearlong conflict in Kosovo by mid-February.

Amid renewed violence that took the lives of two dozen ethnic Albanians, the six-nation Contact Group sought a settlement that would grant "substantial autonomy" to the Albanians but keep the province within the already splintered Serbian-dominated country. Albanians make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population.

"The future of the people of Kosovo is in the hands of the leaders in Belgrade and Kosovo," the Contact Group, which deals with Balkan conflicts, said in a statement at the end of a brisk meeting.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said there was no alternative to the combination of diplomacy and threat of force, which the North Atlantic Council is expected to make even stronger at a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

In Washington, President Clinton said the allies' "goal is not merely to respond to the recent atrocities in Kosovo but to help resolve the conflict so that the violence can end for good."

Clinton said the message from the international community was clear: "The time for denial and delay is past. NATO is united and ready to act if you don't."

He made clear that could include the use of force against the Serbs.

The rebels are fighting to separate Kosovo from Yugoslavia and could undercut an autonomy agreement if one is concluded.

The bloodshed continued Friday. In southwestern Kosovo, police stormed a village and killed 24 ethnic Albanians in a raid on a suspected rebel hideout, international monitors said. One Serb policeman also was reported killed.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who chaired the Contact Group meeting, said: "We felt we had shown sufficient patience, and this was the time to move in a new direction." In addition to Albright and Cook, the Contact Group meeting included the French, German, Italian and Russian foreign ministers.

Cook will deliver the demands to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade and ethnic Albanians in Pristina.

Yugoslav Deputy Premier Vuk Draskovic said Friday his government was willing to negotiate over Kosovo, but he cited strict conditions that left it unclear whether it would join talks as proposed by world leaders.

Draskovic, interviewed by CNN from Belgrade, did not rule out Belgrade's participation in a peace conference proposed by the Contact Group - despite signals to the contrary by Milosevic only hours earlier.

The KLA's representative, Pleurat Sediu, told BBC Radio, "We have been all the time ready to go to the negotiation table and discuss for peace." But he said they "will not discuss anything" while the fighting continues.

In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said Russia shared "the disquiet surrounding the continuing tension" in Kosovo and said all sides should completely fulfill the demands contained in the Contact Group statement.

But the Russians added, "We categorically do not accept the threat of the use of force."

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said an international peacekeeping force may be necessary to monitor a peace agreement. But he added, "We are not there yet."

Albright said it was premature to speculate on whether American ground forces might be part of such a force. She said Congress would be consulted before any decision was made. Other members of Clinton's national security team met for 90 minutes at the White House Friday to review this week's diplomatic activity and discuss U.S. involvement in what White House press secretary Joe Lockhart called a possible "post-implementation force."

Some 7,000 U.S. troops are serving in a multinational force in Bosnia, overseeing the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended a 3 1/2-year war in the former Yugoslav republic.

The Contact Group statement held both Belgrade's security forces and the KLA responsible for escalating violence in Kosovo.

"Repression of civilians by the security forces must end and those forces must be withdrawn," the statement said.

The 11-month conflict has cost more than 1,000 and possibly as many as 2,000 lives. Thousands have been made homeless.